Biggest Mistakes the Axis made iyo.

[Flubber]

IMO

The biggest single mistake was the German persecution and genocide of the Jewish people. This was a large drain on resources and in fact eliminated or caused to flee some of the best scientific minds available. Thow those resources and men into the actual war effort, deny many scientists to Allies and have them working for the AXIS and who knows what weapons might have beendeveloped.

But again, this would require Hitler to not be Hitler.


With the coalitions as they stood, I can't see any scenario in which the Axis win unless the Allies make horrific mistakes or some new super-weapon became available.

The US was coming into the war regardless of Pearl Harbour. It was just a matter of when

[lord of the mark]

Re: Biggest Mistakes the Axis made iyo.

Originally posted by Spec
- Third, Hitler should not have put off his attack on Brittain, he was 4 weeks to late and the weather did not enable safe beach landings.


Spec.

I agree. Hitler should have invaded Britain in June, in Rhine river barges that would have been sunk by the normal waves in the Channel, or by the wake of a passing Destroyer. Whoever had landed would have been cut off from resupply by the RN. Any port they would have moved toward would have been destroyed. The utter disaster might well have caused the fall of the Nazi regime, and several of my inlaws might have survived the war.

Oh, you meant should have from Hitlers POV. In which case I must say no.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
i hope nobody whos daddy or granddaddy died in the invasion of Sicily shows up here. Or in an allied bombing raid on Germany. Or in a convoy delivering aid to Murmansk.

My great uncle died on a bombing run and my grandfather served in Italy. Point is, until troops were on the ground in France, no one consided German to be fighting a two-front war, not the Allies, not the Germans, not the Soviets. Germany did not have to divert significant resources to the Italian campaign, like they did with France. And Murmansk was part of the Eastern Front.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Spec



Hitler never beleived in the coallition. Germany did not have the right to build an army but he did. Nobody said anything. He did not have the right to build an air and naval force, but he did. Again, no consequences. When he "took" poland he had warning, but in the end, no consequences. He also took Poland and Hongrie without consequence from france or Brittain like they warned they'd do. When came the time for Czechoslovakia, he thought that it would be the same thing all over again. So that wasn't a mistake of WW2, it was the mistake that started WW2. But Hitler didn't mind, he took france right after in 3 weeks and so on.

Spec.

???????????


Hitler annexed the rest of independent Czecho in Spring 1939. He didnt attack Poland till Sept 1939. Hungary was a Germany ally, and was not occupied by German troops till 1944. Theres really no point in speculating on whatifs till you know the basic chronology. I suggest reading more about what DID happen first.

In any case STARTING WW2 WAS hitlers biggest mistake. By far.

[chequita guevara]

I would say being Hitler was Hitler's greatest mistake.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara


My great uncle died on a bombing run and my grandfather served in Italy. Point is, until troops were on the ground in France, no one consided German to be fighting a two-front war, not the Allies, not the Germans, not the Soviets. Germany did not have to divert significant resources to the Italian campaign, like they did with France. And Murmansk was part of the Eastern Front.

Churchill certainly considered that he had a second front going, IIRC. I think FDR did too. We can quibble over what serious resources are - I suggest Robert Overy on German resources devoted to Tunisia, Italy, the West Wall, and to air defence. And I dont see how the North Atlantic is part of the eastern front. Are you saying British seamen died on the eastern front?

[Sandman]

It wasn't a mistake to put off invading Britain; it was a wise move. The Germans simply did not have the capacity to pull off an invasion successfully.

Pulling the US into the war was a massive error.

You could say that Japan not attacking the USSR was a mistake, and in a sense it was, but such a campaign, even though it would probably have been a victory for the Axis, would have been a relatively poor choice for Japan. Germany gets a huge tract of rich land and millions of slaves, whilst Japan gets a relatively poor deal in the form of Eastern Siberia. The Pacific is a much more tempting target for them, especially if they want to be able to stand toe-to-toe to Germany in a post-war world.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
And I dont see how the North Atlantic is part of the eastern front. Are you saying British seamen died on the eastern front?

Their struggle was to keep the USSR going and able to fight.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
I would say being Hitler was Hitler's greatest mistake.

well on a moral level of course id agree - on a grand strategic level, if say Hitler had died (lets say of the flu) in January 1939, and been succeeded by some more or less rational military regime, hed probably go down as a great, if morally flawed, German leader.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Sandman
Pulling the US into the war was a massive error.

As I said in a previous thread, once the Germans DoW'd the U.S., it was all over but for the mopping up. They should have let the Japanese take the heat for their mistake, but like the Japanese, they believed we were soft and unwilling to fight. I don't know why anyone ever thought that about us, though.

[Spec]

Originally posted by lord of the mark



???????????


Hitler annexed the rest of independent Czecho in Spring 1939. He didnt attack Poland till Sept 1939. Hungary was a Germany ally, and was not occupied by German troops till 1944. Theres really no point in speculating on whatifs till you know the basic chronology. I suggest reading more about what DID happen first.

In any case STARTING WW2 WAS hitlers biggest mistake. By far.

Really?! I must have my chronology all wrong. I'll have to check that tonight. I bought a series of 9 ww2 encyclopedias which states exactly what happenned before the coalition. I must be mistaken then.....

Spec.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
well on a moral level of course id agree - on a grand strategic level, if say Hitler had died (lets say of the flu) in January 1939, and been succeeded by some more or less rational military regime, hed probably go down as a great, if morally flawed, German leader.

Ala Franco.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara


Their struggle was to keep the USSR going and able to fight.

Indeed. Would the US factories that made the lend lease material also be the eastern front? The UK invasion of Iran to keep the LL route across Iran open? Heck, one of the benefits of winning El Alamein was keeping that route open. Was El Alamein also part of the Eastern Front?

[chequita guevara]

Okay, fine, ya got me.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara


As I said in a previous thread, once the Germans DoW'd the U.S., it was all over but for the mopping up. They should have let the Japanese take the heat for their mistake, but like the Japanese, they believed we were soft and unwilling to fight. I don't know why anyone ever thought that about us, though.

cause we were the worlds first consumer society, and conventionally soft life is supposed to make you weak. And to Hitler, we were racial mongrels, "judaized" in the north, and "negrified" in the south (someone wasnt thinking of Judah Maccabee or Shaka Zulu, let alone of a realistic view of US demographics)